Hello friends and subscribers,
Beginning next week, we’ll have a series of interim meditations and short entries as a new series comes together. The new series is an extended, thematic meditation that embraces the personal and shared transitions we’re experiencing. I’ll reveal the theme (surprise!) when the first entry is posted., which I hope will be in two weeks, perhaps three.
I chose today’s Oprah quote — which echoes Dickinson — because it’s easy for us to be pulled into unconscious, habituated thinking when we’re stressed, anxious, depressed. We can create unnecessary psychological prisons when circumstances seem overwhelming and uncertain.
But uncertainty can be a gift, and it’s the privilege of a lifetime is to be shaken beyond our limitations. It’s takes courage to deeply live hope, to breathe possibility, and to give the world uncommon joy during sorrow. And if giving joy isn’t appropriate, we can gently extend at least a promise of brighter days. And if extending the promise of a brighter day seems untimely, we can simply hold a space for others. We can just be, be in our life, be in our possibilities, be aware, be compassionate.
“Being” is our most skilled and luminous gift.
The audio entries previously posted here have differed from many that I see being recorded/written/zoomed at a dizzying rate during all things coronavirus, because I’ve avoided the ‘managing stress’ theme. Instead, I’ve embraced uncertainty as the primary catalyst that leads us into new, unexpected, transformative ways.
I’ll continue to do so.
It’s the perennial promise of summer solstice during winter’s darkest night, to rely on our Great Mother’s recurring natural metaphor.
“I dwell in possibility.”
Faith, hope, love, and the stuff of possibilities are the ground on which the world’s religious traditions rely when they’re at their best. It’s the stuff of the mystics, and it’s the stuff of the life we’re born to live.
As an aside, I invite you to check out my recent site update, available on the home page by clicking here. You must visit the home page, or the changes won’t be obvious.
Like it? Don’t like it? Have ideas you’d like to share about the site or its content? Please email me at julia@juliaharis.com.
I appreciate you being here, and it’s an honor to have you on the journey.
Please stay safe.
P.S. Here’s a video that came up in my Facebook feed this week. Well worth your time: Psalm 23 For Me
(This entry was generously supported by a koan creative. Many thanks.)